The Decemberists’ synth-heavy new album is their best in years (stream it)

The Decemberists threw a lot of us for a curveball when they announced that their new album would feature a lot of synths, but it turns out it was exactly the album The Decemberists had to make — I’ll Be Your Girl is their best in years. The Decemberists have always been an above-average band, but after a steady evolution from their 2002 debut Castaways and Cutouts through their proggy 2009 album The Hazards of Love, The Decemberists started losing steam a bit. They released 2011’s The King Is Dead, which was sort of a neatly-presented, easily-digestible version of The Decemberists. It has some great songs (“Down by the Water,” “Rox in the Box,” “This Is Why We Fight”), but it was a little watered down compared to their best work. By 2015’s What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, The Decemberists released their first album that you could call “forgettable.” But I’ll Be Your Girl is the album they needed to shake things up again; it’s the most radical Decemberists album since The Hazards of Love (a folk-rock opera with a noticeable sludge metal influence that’s still kinda underrated).

It does indeed have a lot of synths, but there are still plenty of folk parts, and Colin Meloy’s lyrics and melodies still show a love of centuries-old traditionals. My favorite song on the album, “Cutting Stone,” starts out like the kind of pseudo-traditional you’d find on Picaresque, but after its strummy acoustic intro, gothy synths and a four-on-the-floor drum beat come in, kind of sounding like British folk meeting Thriller-era Michael Jackson, and somehow it actually works. They’ve got straightup synthpop songs like lead single “Severed,” songs that stay closer to their trademark folk-rock like “Sucker’s Prayer,” and some real nice middle ground like opener “Once In My Life.” They’ve also got their first lengthy prog song since The Hazards of Love, the eight-plus minute “Rusalka, Rusalka / Wild Rushes.” The Decemberists have always excelled at this kind of thing (“The Tain,” “The Island,” etc), and “Rusalka” is no different. Starting out as a dark, atmospheric song, it goes through all kinds of peaks and valleys, including a sludgy dirge, an upbeat trad-style folk section, moments of jammy psychedelia, and more, which is quite a feat considering how listenable the song is. I’ll Be Your Girl isn’t without its missteps (“We All Die Young” is pretty skippable), but the highs far outweigh the lows and it’s a great thing to be getting music this adventurous from them at this point in their career.

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